Steering shaft boot/bushing and/or adjustment question, ...need some advice/direction Options

[naro914]

For a long time, steering in Huey has been difficult - VERY hard to turn like something was always fighting you. I knew the boot that covers the shaft under the gas tank was never installed so I thought maybe the problem was that the tank was sitting on the shaft or bushings or something.

So today I took out the gas tank and sat looking at it. First....I have no clue how to put the boot on (do I have to drop the rack for that?) but I think the real problem is different. I undid the two allen bolts that hold the U bracket on and slid the rubber bushings out of the was to asses things. Immediately the shaft moved right up against the sides of the hole where it comes through the firewall and relieved the pressure it was under. (see picture) In other words, the shaft was NOT centered at all in that hole, so with the bushings trying to center the shaft, they were putting an immense amount of pressure on the shaft, thus making it hard to turn. (at least this is my theory). In fact, sometimes you can hear a squeaking/creaking type sound when turning the wheel, like metal moving tightly on rubber...

I thought "ok, adjust the U-joints to allow the shaft to be centered". no dice since you can't lengthen/shorten the shaft in the U Joints because of the notch they have where the tightening bolt goes through.

So....questions for the 914world brain trust:

1) how can I adjust things to get that shaft centered through the firewall hole?
2) how do I get the boot on?
3) where can I get new versions of all those bushings? there seems to be two (1 & 2 in my picture) and I guess a bearing (3)?

thoughts?
TIA

[naro914]

Thanks for the advice. So..yes the car has had damage (those that know Huey know...check out the story on the NaroEscape Motorsports website link in my sig)
And yes it has bump steer spacers, which is what I started thinking about before I saw your post.. I was looking at the shaft where the bearing should be riding on and it’s pushed up too high. So I took them out and made them half size and it seems to be more centered. But... for the life of me I can’t get the bushings and bearing back where it goes. Can’t get the rubber bushing that’s around the bearing to go into place, and don’t know if the bearing is in place. Or if it’s any good since it’s probably been off the correct place on the shaft all this time.
So I decided I’ll take out the rack, replace the bearing and bushing...and the puck too while I’m at it. Ordered it all from 914 rubber earlier. Might as well do it right while I’m here.

Btw cuddy...would have loved to see the remove and replace of the rack in your video. Do you have to take off the aux support? Last time I did a rack we were redoing the entire front end suspension so it was all out.
And FYI, this has a relatively recently installed quick ratio rack so it’s not worn out or anything. I know a quick ratio rack will be a bit harder to steer when going slow, but this is really hard all the time.

I’ll post progress. Need to get a tie rod puller tomorrow..